Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd is an Australianfast food franchise of Burger King Corporation. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack’s owns and operates or sub-licences all of the Burger King/Hungry Jack's restaurants in Australia. As the master franchise for the country, the company is responsible for licensing new operators, opening its own stores and performing standards oversight of franchised locations in that country. With over 390 locations across Australia, Hungry Jack's is the second largest franchise of Burger King in the world (second to Carrols Corporation).

When Burger King moved to expand its operations into Australia, it found that its business name was already trademarked by a takeaway food shop in Adelaide, South Australia.[3] As a result, Burger King provided the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin, with a list of possible alternative names derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and its then corporate parent Pillsbury that could be used to name the Australian restaurants. Cowin selected the "Hungry Jack" brand name, one of Pillsbury's U.S. pancake mixture products, and slightly changed the name to a possessive form by adding an apostrophe and "s" to form the new name "Hungry Jack's".[4] The first Australian franchise of Burger King Corporation was established in Innaloo, Perth on 18 April 1971, under the auspices of Cowin's new company Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd.[5] By the end of its first decade of operation, Hungry Jack's had expanded to 26 stores in three states. In October 1981, the company opened its first New South Wales store in the Sydney central business district on the corner of Liverpool and George Street. In 1986, the chain entered Victoria by purchasing 11 stores from the ailing Wendy's Hamburger chain, later converting them to Hungry Jack's.[6]

In 1991, Hungry Jack's Pty Limited renewed its franchise agreement with Burger King Corporation which allowed the Hungry Jack's to license third party franchisee; however, one of the conditions of the agreement was that Hungry Jack's had to open a certain number of stores every year for the term of the contract. In 1996, shortly after the Australian trademark on the Burger King name lapsed, Burger King Corporation made a claim that Hungry Jack's had violated the conditions of the renewed franchise agreement by failing to expand the chain at the rate defined in the contract and sought to terminate the agreement. Under the aegis of this claim, Burger King Corporation in partnership with Shell Australia, began to open its own stores in 1997 beginning in Sydney and throughout the Australian regions of New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania.[7][8][9][10] In addition, Burger King sought to limit HJ's ability to open new locations in the country, whether they were corporate locations or third-party licensees.[11]

As a result of Burger King's actions,[citation needed] Hungry Jack's owner Jack Cowin and his company Competitive Foods Australia, began legal proceedings in 2001 against the Burger King Corporation, claiming Burger King Corporation had violated the conditions of the master franchising agreement and was in breach of the contract.[citation needed] The Supreme Court of New South Wales agreed with Cowin and determined that Burger King had violated the terms of the contract and awarded Hungry Jack's A$46.9 million (US$41.6 million in 2001).[12][13] In its decision, the Court said that Burger King sought to engineer a default of the franchise agreement so that the company could limit the number of new Hungry Jack’s branded restaurants and ultimately claim the Australian market as its own, which was a purpose that was extraneous to the agreement.[11] The case introduced the American legal concept of good faith negotiations into the Australian legal system, which until the time of the verdict had been rarely used in the Australian court systems.[14][15]

A Hungry Jack's/Coles Express/Shell outlet in Elizabeth Street, Hobart. From 1997 until it was rebranded in 2003 this was Hobart's first and only Burger King-branded outlet, and was the first Burger King in Australia to be located outside an airport.[10]

After Burger King Corporation lost the case, it decided to terminate its operations in the country and in July 2002 the company transferred its assets to its New Zealand franchise group, Trans-Pacific Foods (TPF).[16][17] The terms of the sale had TPF assume oversight of the Burger King franchises in the region as the Burger King brand's master franchisee.[18] Trans-Pacific Foods administered the chain's 81 locations until September 2003 when the new management team of Burger King Corporation reached an agreement with Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd to re-brand the existing Burger King locations to Hungry Jack's and make Hungry Jack's Pty the sole master franchisee of both brands.[citation needed] An additional part of the agreement required Burger King Corporation to provide administrative and advertising support as to ensure a common marketing scheme for the company and its products.[19] Trans-Pacific Foods transferred its control of the Burger King franchises to Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd, which subsequently renamed the remaining Burger King locations as "Hungry Jack's," joining the other 210 outlets at the time.[4][8]

Many new Hungry Jack's restaurants have a 1950s theme. Music from this era may be played within the restaurant (occasionally through a '50s-style jukebox) with associated contemporary pictures and memorabilia utilized as part of the decor. In the larger sit-down style restaurants, the seats and tables are laid out in a 1950s diner style.[citation needed]

In the 2009–2010 financial year, Competitive Foods Australia reported an after-tax profit of $32.1 million on sales of $1.043 billion.[20]

A Hungry Jack's Bacon Deluxe combo meal, a long-standing menu option unique to the Australian market

The only Burger King trademarks that are sold at Hungry Jack's are the Whopper and the TenderCrisp and TenderGrill sandwiches. All other Burger King products go by more generic naming schemes, such as "Hamburger", "Veggie Burger", or "Grilled Chicken Burger".[21][22]

Hungry Jack's breakfast menu, introduced in late 2005 in three states (Queensland, Western Australia, and Northern Territory) and the other states the following year, bears little resemblance to Burger King's US breakfast menu.

Due to the increase in veganism across Australia,[23] Hungry Jack's introduced a "Vegan Burger" in late 2018. A large promotional campaign was run, including partnering with Natalia Tran, creator of Community Channel.[24]

The slogan, "The Burgers Are Better At Hungry Jack's," was used until 2011, dropped in favour of, "Makes It Better."[25] However, the old slogan was reinstated in 2013.[26]

Hungry Jack's in Australia has trademarked the new slogan, 'Oh Yeah', which was featured in television commercials that ran late 2005/early 2006. While Burger King has updated its logo to the "blue crescent" design in all other markets from 1999, the Hungry Jack's logo is still based on the previous 1996 revised Burger King bun-halves logo, employing the simpler bun-and-filling motif.[27]

Hungry Jack's Kid's Club mascots are unique to the Australian franchisee, as opposed to other international locations that use one of the two existing Burger King kid's mascots, the Burger King Kids' Club or the Honbatz. Hungry Jacks does have a Kid's Club program similar to the US offering, offering themed birthday parties at its restaurants along with its Kid's Club Meals. One other noticeable difference between the Hungry Jacks and Burger King children's programs is the placement of the apostrophe in the name: Hungry Jacks places it before the "s" while Burger King places it after.

Hungry Jack's retains strong links with Perth: the city's first team in the Australian Football League, the West Coast Eagles, have been sponsored by Hungry Jack's since their entry into the league in 1987.
On 5 October 2017, Hungry Jack's became the naming rights sponsor for the National Basketball League.[28] The Hungry Jack’s logo is featured on player jerseys, in and around venues, and the company was closely associated with Heritage Month in January.[29]

^Andrew Terry; Heatrher Forrest (2008). "Where's the Beef? Why Burger King Is Hungry Jack's in Australia and Other Complications in Building a Global Franchise Brand". Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, 2008. 28 (2): 171–214. ISSN0196-3228.

^Restaurant Business (30 May 2003). "Burger King Re-flags Australian Stores". AllBusiness.com. Archived from the original on 2012-01-14. Retrieved 2007-09-29. Mr Cowin bought the Australian franchise for Burger King from the chain's then-owner, Pillsbury Co. But because the Burger King name was already registered in the country, Cowin used a Pillsbury pancake-mix brand, Hungry Jack, for his stores."; "Hungry Jack's was BK's original franchisee in Australia, but the company could not use the Burger King name at the time because it was already trademarked.

^Rani Mina (Corrs Chambers Westgarth) (March 2002). "A Franchiser's Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing". Findlaw (Australia). Retrieved 2008-06-01. In contrast, it was necessary to imply this duty [good faith] in the Burger King case to give business efficacy to the agreement because the agreement gave Burger King a discretionary power to terminate the agreement on the basis of operational and financial grounds that involved subjective considerations. Burger King could terminate the agreement for the slightest breach based on a subjective evaluation of the circumstances if it were not obliged to act in good faith.

^The Gale Group (9 June 2003). "Hungry Jack's to replace BK brand in Australia". Nations Restaurant News. Retrieved 2008-03-08. "Consolidation means more money for marketing and will create a powerful, single brand with an increased focus on operations excellence that should add to growth in profitability", Brad Blum, chief executive of Miami-based Burger King, said.